In the cigarette manufacturing industry, there are a number of different types of cartoning machines which are used to carton ten packages of cigarettes in a single carton. In the past, the cartoning machine manufactured by Molins Limited, London, England has been utilized widely throughout the cigarette manufacturing industry. In the past several years, one of the primary objectives of the cigarette industry has been to increase production speeds and, thus, reduce costs. Manufacturers such as Molins Limited and Hauni-Werke GmbH have developed cigarette making machines with greatly increased production rates.
It is also desirable, as nearly as possible, to have production lines of cigarette making machine, a packaging machine and a cartoning machine set up on a 1:1:1 basis, but each of the different machines run at different unit per minute speeds. Therefore, it is almost impossible to set up a complete production line on a 1:1 ratio. For example, the new generation making machines have a greater making capacity than the previously used AMF packer manufactured by AMF Company, but these same making machines have insufficient capacity for the new generation of packers; for example, the G.D.-X.1 Cigarette Packer manufactured by G. D. Societa per Azioni from Bologna, Italy. For this reason, either two makers must be used in conjunction with a single G.D. packer running at full capacity or one high speed maker running at full capacity must be used in conjunction with two AMF packers. The problem with these hook-ups is that either the maker or the packer cannot be run at full capacity. For example, if the makers were run at full capacity, a single G.D. packer could not handle the full output; however, the increased output of the makers is not great enough for an additional packing machine, thus, one of the machines must be operated below capacity.
Steps have been taken to increase the output capacity of the AMF packers so that they can be hooked up on a one-to-one basis with the new generation cigarette makers. By using a one-to-one relationship between the new generation makers and the improved AMF packer, the boxers or cartoning machines cannot be hooked up in the usual two packer to one boxer ratio; thus, an improved boxer is essential.
There are generally two kinds of cartoning machines used in the tobacco industry today. They are the Molins boxer and the G.D. cartoner. There are problems associated with the blank feeding mechanisms of both machines by increasing the speed. For example, as the speed of the Molins boxer is increased, slippage between the feed mechanism suction cups and the blanks occur producing jam-ups and production line stoppages. The jam-ups are caused by misalignment or skewing of the carton blanks as they are fed into the folding section of the cartoning machine. The slippage appears to be due to the forward force applied to the blanks in the hopper. The horizontal components of the weight of the blanks, which are on an incline, and the gravity pressure roll, which is positioned behind the blanks to force them forward, produces a relatively high friction force which must be overcome as the leading blank is slid from the pile. As the speed of the feed mechanism increases, the blanks are removed from the hopper pile at an accelerated rate so that there is an increased amount of shock and less positioning time for the suction cups. In addition, there is less time for vacuum build-up in the feed line and inside the suction cups. The problems cause the suction cups to slip on the blank, thus, producing a misaligned blank going into the feed section.
One possible solution would appear to be to reduce the forward force or the horizontal component of force on the blank being removed by reducing the weight of the blanks or the gravity roll. Although this solution might be feasible, it has been found that, even at the slower rates of speed, the hopper on the Molins boxer must be at least a quarter full before sufficient pressure is applied to the blank being removed before the suction cup of the feed mechanism will pick up the outside blank. Because of these limitations, the speed of the Molins boxer cannot be increased much further without extensive redesign of the entire feed section. The recently developed G.D. cigarette cartoning machine has generally overcome the slippage problem and provides some high speed reliability. The slippage problem is prevented by utilizing a feed section which remains in contact with the blank during the entire stroke of the machine, thus, requiring that the stroke be the same length as the blank. Since the outer blank is peeled away from the pile over its entire length, there is no opportunity for slippage to occur. The only problem with this solution is that there is a limitation placed on the speed of the machine because the stroke of the machine must be the length of the blank before the blank is removed from the pile to prevent problems with a friction force between the blanks.
Thus, there exists a need for a cartoning mechanism which will eliminate the slippage of the blank at high speed as well as permit a decrease in stroke length.